How to Prepare Print-Ready Artwork: Bleed, Margins and Resolution Explained

Most printing delays come down to one of three things: missing bleed, text too close to the edge, or an image that isn't sharp enough once enlarged. None of them are complicated once you know what to look for.

What is bleed, and why does it matter?

Bleed is extra artwork that extends past the edge of your final trimmed size, usually by about 3mm. Paper is cut after printing, and cutting is never perfectly precise to the millimetre, so if your background colour or image stops exactly at the edge, a slight shift in cutting can leave a thin white sliver along one side. Extending your background past the trim line means any small shift in cutting still lands inside printed colour, not a gap.

Safe margins: the flip side of bleed

While bleed protects the outer edge, a safe margin protects the inside. Keep important text, logos and anything you don't want cropped at least a few millimetres inside the trim line. Text placed right at the edge risks being cut off if trimming shifts even slightly.

Resolution: why a photo can look fine on screen but soft in print

A screen shows images at a much lower resolution than print requires. A photo that looks sharp on your phone can look noticeably soft once printed at poster size, because print needs far more detail per inch than a screen does. As a rough guide, 300 dots per inch (DPI) at the final printed size is the standard for sharp results; anything lower, especially on a large print, risks a blurred or pixelated result.

Colour mode: RGB vs CMYK

Screens display colour as RGB (red, green, blue); printing uses CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Converting from RGB to CMYK can shift some colours, particularly bright blues and greens, so if exact colour matching matters for your brand, it's worth checking a CMYK proof before a large run rather than after.

If this all sounds like a lot

It doesn't need to be something you solve alone. Star Printers offers a free design service, so if your file isn't quite there yet, send us what you have and we'll tell you honestly what needs adjusting, or put it together for you. Contact us with your artwork, or browse our full range of printing services to get started.

A quick checklist before you send your file

• Is the file at the correct finished size, with 3mm bleed added on every edge that needs it?
• Is important text and detail kept clear of the trim edge, not right up against it?
• Is any photo or image at least 300 DPI at the size it will actually be printed?
• Is the file saved in a format that preserves quality, such as a print-ready PDF, rather than a low-resolution screenshot?

What happens if your file isn't quite ready

Sending an imperfect file isn't a problem, it's the normal starting point for a lot of orders. We would rather check a file properly and flag what needs adjusting than let something print incorrectly and need reprinting. If you're working from a phone photo, an old logo file, or a document that was never designed for print, tell us and we'll advise honestly on what's usable and what needs recreating.